Welcome one and all to the RAW RECAP presented by THE REVELLEUTION! Last week saw the full implosion of The Judgement Day with Rhea Ripley and Damien Priest kicked out and Liv Morgan ‘completed’ her Revenge Tour as she was now in and had her claws on Dominik Mysterio. The issues between Morgan and Ripley are far from done, so what’s next for these rivals? And who will become the number one contender for the Women’s Tag Team Championships when Damage CTRL takes on Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark? Let’s get into it, and find out…
RHEA RIPLEY opened up Raw with an in-ring promo. She lost the crowd when she got a little emotional about the betrayal but got them back when she said she was just pissed off. Things got very non-PG TV with an innuendo to imply Mysterio wasn’t ‘man enough’ and said Liv Morgan couldn’t run forever from her.
LIV MORGAN and Dominik Mysterio appeared, but high in the crowd away from the ring. Nothing of much importance was said and again Ripley lost the crowd a bit, claiming she was somewhat proud of Mysterio finally making a decision for himself but it would be the last decision that he ever makes. Morgan bragged that she took everything from Ripley including The Judgement Day and the Women’s title. However, Ripley taunted that since Morgan loves the sound of her voice ‘we’ know where they were. A plan from The Terror Twins as Damien Priest appeared behind Mysterio to start a brawl, before Morgan fled in fear when Ripley chased her through the stands and out of shot while the men brawled.
After a match between Priest and Carlito, The Judgement Day along with Morgan attacked Priest before Ripley made the save things. Ripley almost hit a Riptide on Mysterio but Morgan hauled him to safety before they fled.
MAXXINE DUPRI and IVY NILE talked backstage as Nile tried to talk to Dupri to get her to ditch the Alpha Academy but Dupri refused to leave her ‘family’ Something that Nile with a hint of bitterness figured that Dupri would say.
SCARLETT and The Final Testament confronted The New Day and Odessey Jones.
Maxxine Dupri would accompany Alpha Academy as they faced American Made. Late in the match, Ivy Nile would appear and attack Dupri, hitting a Flapjack to dump Dupri on the announce table. The distraction as Nile applied a Dragon Sleeper to Dupri allowed The Creed Brothers to steal a win as Nile properly aligned with The Creeds again.
JACKIE REDMOND and CATHY KELLEY handled interview duties.
DAMAGE CTRL got a promo vid with subtitles, but there were subtitles even when they spoke in English. Awkward. SHANYA BASZLER, SONYA DEVILLE and ZOEY STARK would respond afterwards and stated that their group was now called… The Pure Fusion Collective. Yikes.
Tag Team Match – Number One Contendership for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships
Damage CTRL (IYO SKY & KAIRI SANE) Vs The Pure Fusion Collective (SHAYNA BASZLER & ZOEY STARK) w/h SONYA DEVILLE ended in a no contest.
The Women’s Tag Team Champions, The Unholy Union of ALBA FYRE and ISLA DAWN came out before the match to watch from ringside. For whatever reason, Divas era ‘Legend’ Candice Michelle was shown as being in the crowd. Sky and Baszler started off, as Sky took control with flip evasions and a Headscissors. Sane took a tag and some misdirection allowed the Sky Pirates to hit dualling Dropkicks to Baszler. Sane hit her corner Sliding Forearm and then a Flying Forearm to get a nearfall.
Moments later, Stark was tagged in as Baszler hit a Backbreaker on Sane and held her in place for Stark to swing in with a Clothesline blow of sorts. After a commercial break, Sane countered a Suplex attempt by Baszler to hit a DDT. Tags on both sides made Stark and Sky legal, and Sky went into House on Fire mode to hit Shoteis then a Dropkick. She fought off both of PFC and hit a Springboard Missile Dropkick to nail both opponents. The Bullet Train Attack got a two count.
Stark blocked a Double Underhook move attempt and hit a German Suplex to Sky. Baszler got a tag, but going to hit a knee to Sky when she was on Stark’s shoulders missed by a lot. Stark hit a flip DVD to allow Baszler to hit a Sliding Kick, but Sane broke up the pin attempt. Later, Sky would hit the Double Underhook Backbreaker to Stark but when she went up for the Moonsault Deville distracted the referee so Baszler could shove Sky off the top. Things broke down as Sane hit a Backfist to Baszler on the floor and got taken out with a kick by Stark. That led to Stark unintentionally nailing Alba Fyre with a Superkick that was meant for Sky.
In the ring, Sky hit Over the Moonsault on Stark but furious at the attack moments before, Dawn and Fyre hit the ring and attacked Sky to get the match thrown out. Deville was wiped out by a Fyre Superkick before everyone got beaten up by the tag champs. Baszler took a Gordbuster from Fyre then a Running Knee from Dawn. Before Sane took a Backstabber from Dawn and was held in place for a Swanton Bomb by Fyre.
It was announced that at Bash in Berlin, a Mixed Tag Team Match would pit Liv Morgan and Dominik Mysterio against Rhea Ripley and Damien Priest. Also announced was due to the match earlier being thrown out, Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn will now defend the Women’s Tag Team Championships against both Damage CTRL and PFC in a Triple Threat Match.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I don’t hate a Mixed Tag being on a PLE, and it works nicely for the storyline. The feud with Morgan and Ripley has plenty of life in it and I’d expect a payoff gimmick match to happen perhaps at the Bad Blood event. Meanwhile, a fine tag match ends in a no-contest but finally we see not just the tag champs on Raw but stamping authority with a beatdown. It worked great and the Triple Threat match next week should be a blast. Although there was no mention of Blair Davenport’s association with the Union, and the separate stories for Raw and Smackdown for them is just odd. Why pretend one storyline isn’t happening just because it’s on another brand? Especially when a Smackdown Superstar is challenging for the Raw men’s World title.
Lastly… Pure Fusion Collective? Really?? I know that The Collective is already a thing from the GCW mass show, but that name is just too out there. It’s the last thing that the group needed with how up and down the performances from the members have been.
That’s your lot for this week! Be sure to stop by in seven days’ time for the next edition of the RAW RECAP! See you then!